the most interesting thing that i have learned living with animals is....inside each and every one...a real person lives.
not a human person...an animal person which is just as good and just as multi-dimensional but different than your average human being.
this is not anthro-blah'blah'izing animals by any means..it is just giving them their due as living, thinking and feeling animal beings.
bonita is getting pissy with the cats and farm animals..why now..after more than a month, i ask her and myself?
and i am pretty sure i know the answer because i live with this dog and i see how she functions. now i am stretching the limits here so pleas bear with me and give this an extra thought.
bonita believes that cats and farm animals are less than her. she understands the value in people, she understands the value in dogs...cats and farm animals she has no respect for (except the big buys might actually kick out her brains..she is not stupid in any survival way)..but as their own species..they are foreign and different and do not have any rights.
when she chases or lunges at them..there is no prey drive kicking in..she is not out having fun scattering whoever because she powerfully can....there is only an uncertain fear of someone who is vastly different than her and with that fear comes a bit of anger to make them either go away or run from her.
it reminds me of our own human history of enslaving, abusing and segregating other human races and creeds...different means "less than"...different means "victim"...different means "threat"...different means many things but it does not mean "equal."
oh its one of THOSE "lectures" ... all insight and deeper meaning
i treat ellie mae with a great deal of respect (most of the time)..to me, ellie is a very large person with very large feelings accompanied by a very large mouth which could easily remove my arm. i don't always understand her which sometimes pisses both of us off but i am cognizant of the fact that whether i am understanding her or not she is able to feel happy, sad, mad, angry, afraid, frustrated, grown up, childish, playful or solitary in a very large and powerful body. and i better be able to read how she is feeling even if i can't see why.
of all of the animals here...ellie has been the greatest catylyst to changing my perceptions..i watch that pig think..i watch her consider and ponder....i watch her plot...her human eyes are the window straight into her brain and heart.
and the dogs and cats and rabbits and cows and goats and horses and llamas and sheep and chickens/ducks do not think or feel any less than her or i..they just all also do it differently...not as easily seen because they do not have human eyes.
people are not only human beings..people are any living things with feelings and thoughts...with un ique personalities...they understand what they are familiar and comfortable with and they fear and distrust what they don't.
bonita is sort of lucky that she is quite an intelligent dog...she is thinking on a higher and deeper level than say daphne who thinks a 1500 pound cow is just another big saints dog. and just like human beings who think in differently unique and complex ways..each animal of every species does have the same kind of depth and variety of ability.
there are smart ducks and dumb ducks...there are chickens a bit more on the ball than some of the others...there are bunnies who think all other bunnies are a threat and those who think all bunnies are their friends.
and there are animals (and humans) in the middle of their particular species brilliant and dumb as dirt spectrum..but even the dumbest of all of them...still think, still feel...just like people.
so bonita is in the process of learning that while SHE may not see any value in my cats.....i see the deep value in them and she needs to respect and honor that and as a thinking and feeling person..i know she is totally capable of this.
it is just going to take some time to take her thoughts and feelings and guide them into more matching of mine.
quit bullying the cats boni..you are pissing me off.
I think I'll just stay on this couch. I value this couch A LOT!
i had a dalmation that was truly mine. he stole my whole heart he was deaf and epileptic that just made him all the more special. but unlike a lot of people, when he passed at 10 from acute kidney failure i only had a little time to grieve because 2 other dogs showed up that needed me. that did not make me love him any less i often thought that he would approve of my not replacing him but of giving them the love that i had so unselfishly given him, that was his legacy for me to help others, and so far although i still miss him tremendously i have been able to help others who were way less fortunate.